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Projects

Over and above the research aims of the work programme, the SLRG is dedicated to building capacity for research in sustainable lifestyles amongst academics, young researchers, practitioners, and user communities. Above all SLRG aims to provide a vital resource for policy-makers attempting to influence the behaviours and practices of households, business and communities.

Our research portfolio comprises around a dozen projects within four main research clusters: Community, Economy, Change Processes and Synthesis.

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Community

A perceived crisis of un-sustainability in the food system has precipitated mounting calls for a transition to sustainabilityin the ways that food is produced, traded and consumed. This study concerns the strategic attempts made by UK-based civil society organisations (CSO’s) to transform food systems and make them more sustainable. ...Read more

This project aims to explore resilience in activities as promoted by food-related civil society groups who seek to develop more sustainable ways of producing and consuming food. It will focus specifically on communal gardening projects which provide fresh produce for those who participate. It is important to understand what enables Sustainable activities to develop resilience, and related properties such as stability, durability and robustness, in the face of shocks and stresses that those activities, or the organisations that support them, experience. ...Read more

This project seeks to narrow a gap in the sustainable lifestyles research - which is mostly concentrated on urban settings - by conducting ethnographic studies of three remote rural communities in Scotland, each currently undertaking projects to promote sustainable living locally. ...Read more

Economy

Improved energy efficiency and behavioural change are expected to play a key role in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, the energy and GHG savings from such measures may be less than simple calculations suggest, owing to a variety of mechanisms that go under the heading of rebound effects. This project seeks to improve understanding of the nature, magnitude and importance of these rebound effects for UK households. ...Read more

This project had three main aims: to identify quantitatively from household purchase data the distribution of willingness-to-pay for a range of food characteristics (organic, freerange, fairtrade, country- of-origin) amongst the UK household population; to study the empirical relationship between these preferences and demographics in the UK household population; and to study the relationship between these preferences and responses to attitudinal questions regarding various shopping habits, including preferences for buying local or environmentally friendly products ...Read more

Change Processes

The aim of this scoping project is to develop a longitudinal study on the relationship between children and the environment and to explore media opportunities to bring this relationship into the public eye. ...Read more

This study aims to provide an in-depth exploration of a range of issues relating to the way in which people’s lifestyles may become more or less sustainable at points of transition, specifically those having a first child and those retiring. ...Read more

This study will be a systematic test of the habit discontinuity hypothesis. The core concept being tested is whether context change (moving home) can provide an opportunity to influence existing unsustainable behaviours and result in the adoption of new pro-environmental activities. ...Read more

Synthesis

The Foundations Project aims to synthesis a coherent framework for sustainable living. It will be essentially a common intellectual endeavour, facilitated and led by Professor Jackson, with input from across the research group. ...Read more

Policy goals around sustainable behaviours are nebulous and contested. The realities of the policy making process include severe time pressures, limited resources, changing ministers and ministerial priorities (Bielak et al., 2008). ...Read more